Why is it important for us to pray? What does prayer accomplish?

While God is always at work, accomplishing His purposes for the world, He often sovereignly chooses to accomplish many of His purposes through human prayer. In Scripture, there are examples of when God will only act in response to human prayer.

For example, in Genesis 20, Abraham was staying in the land of Gerar. The local king found Sarah to be attractive, and Abraham said that Sarah was his sister. Abimelech took her to be his wife. That angered God. He sent Abimelech a dream warning that he would die for taking an already married woman as a wife. The king protested that he didn’t know. And God answered—

“Yes, I know you did this with a clear conscience, and so I have kept you from sinning against me. That is why I did not let you touch her. Now return the man’s wife, for he is a prophet, and he will pray for you and you will live. But if you do not return her, you may be sure that you and all who belong to you will die” (Genesis 20:6-7, emphasis added).

God didn’t want Abimelech to die. And yet, He also wanted to save Abimelech through Abraham’s prayer.

God loves to accomplish His purposes through our prayers.

We see this again in Ezekiel 22, where God indicted Jerusalem for her rampant sins, which called out for destruction. However, God wanted to show mercy to His chosen city. He looked for someone to “stand in the gap” and intercede in prayer for the city, but found no one to do it:

“I looked for someone among them who would build up the wall and stand before me in the gap on behalf of the land so I would not have to destroy it, but I found no one. So I will pour out my wrath on them and consume them with my fiery anger, bringing down on their own heads all they have done, declares the Sovereign Lord” (Ezekiel 22:30-31, emphasis added).

God desired mercy, but no leader, prophet, or priest stepped in to pray on behalf of the land. God wanted to show mercy through the means of prayer. Without it, Jerusalem would be destroyed.

Another striking case occurs at the end of the Book of Job. You will remember that Job suffered greatly, and while his friends came to comfort him, they gave terrible advice, trying to explain Job’s suffering due to his supposed guilt. Job’s friends sound a lot like many people today! It turns out they misunderstood the whole situation. In God’s eyes, Job’s friends had become culpable for giving bad advice. But He would show them mercy if Job prayed for them:

“So now take seven bulls and seven rams and go to my servant Job and sacrifice a burnt offering for yourselves. My servant Job will pray for you, and I will accept his prayer and not deal with you according to your folly. You have not spoken the truth about me, as my servant Job has” (Job 42:8).

Once again, God wanted to show mercy to these men. But He wanted to show it through Job’s intercession.

To give one last example, when Jesus went through the towns and villages preaching the good news of the kingdom, He saw the great crowds and had compassion on them. They were lost, like sheep without a shepherd. The Lord told His disciples,

“Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field” (Matthew 9:37-38).

We know that God loves the world and wants to save it and is actively drawing all men to Christ (cf. John 3:16). Why, then, does Jesus tell us to pray to the Lord to send more workers? Why would the farmhands have to ask the owner of the farm to send more workers? Doesn’t He know? Doesn’t He want the harvest to be brought in? Here again, it pleases God to fulfill His desires through the prayers of the people.

Why would an all-knowing, all-powerful God hold off on acting until we pray? Why would He refuse to accomplish His own desires apart from the prayers of His people?

The answer seems to lie in His relational nature. When God created man, it was to rule over creation (Genesis 1:28). God created partners who would work in dependence upon God. He doesn't want to only accomplish His will to us, but with us. He delights in working through His people, and it seems to be part of His will for us to learn to cooperate with God in His work by depending upon Him in prayer. God loves that we depend upon Him.

Why should you pray? Why should pastors devote themselves to prayer and to the ministry of the Word? (Cf. Acts 6:4).

If God has chosen to work through your prayers, and if He withholds certain blessings without them, then your prayers matter more than you may think. They matter for your life and for this church because they can mean the difference between God acting to bless you or not.

Don’t wait for change—pray for it. Whether you’re praying for a friend’s salvation, for a prodigal child to return home, for your church’s growth, or the provision of your daily needs, know this: God may be waiting for you to stand in the gap and pray.

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Send your questions or comments to shawn@freegrace.in.

Read his latest book, The Myth of Tithing and the Joy of Grace Giving by getting it from us or from Amazon.